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“Actually, I’m self-employed.”

“I need to talk to him.”

Logan smiled broadly. “Why sure, no problem. He’s an underground cyber journalist you feds have been after for years... and now by simply asking me, you’ll get a direct line to him, no questions asked... And what would you like for your other two wishes?”

“Mr. Cale, what if I can give you an assurance that—”

“I don’t work for Eyes Only. I share some of his distrust of the government, but it ends there. So maybe you better just leave.”

Gottlieb didn’t move. His attitude shifted, subtly. “As someone who doesn’t know Eyes Only, Mr. Cale, can you tell me why your fingerprints were all over the apartment where we traced his last broadcast to?”

Logan started to rise, but Gottlieb put a hand on his arm. “I’m not here to arrest you. In fact, I have a gift for you — a show of good faith.”

Withdrawing a manila envelope from his overcoat, he laid it on the counter between them.

Sitting down again, Logan asked, “What’s this?”

“All the fingerprint files from the apartment. White never saw them.”

Logan studied the agent; the man’s face had a tortured sort of sincerity etched on it. “What about the NSA fingerprint people?”

“They’re no problem,” Gottlieb said. “They delivered the print identification just as they were supposed to... to me. Agent White lost interest in Eyes Only when the situation at Jam Pony came up. I give them to you now as a sign of my sincerity.”

“These prove nothing,” Logan said. “This could all still be in a computer anywhere.”

“I’ve dealt with that. They’re gone.”

“Well, hell — what more assurance could I need than that?”

“Listen, Mr. Cale! Just hear me out.”

Ricky the bartender wandered up. The agent shook his head and the bartender went back to the TV. Logan wanted to bolt, but after slipping the envelope inside his jacket, he turned to face Gottlieb. “So talk.”

“Can’t we go somewhere?”

“No — this place is empty and not bugged, unless you’ve bugged it. Tell me here or not at all.”

After mulling that for a few seconds, Gottlieb kept his voice low and asked, “The name I mentioned earlier... the man I work for. You know him?”

Logan nodded.

“I think he may have gone rogue.”

Laughing out loud, Logan said, “No wonder the NSA snapped you up — you don’t miss anything. Anything else hot off the presses? Any word in yet about whether Nixon’s a crook?”

Gottlieb’s eyes fell, his face turning crimson, as he said, “I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. We’re supposed to be on the same team, after all, he and I.”

“Ames White is on a team, all right,” Logan said. “But not the one you’re playing on, or any team that’s trying to help this country.”

“I figured that out.”

“Good for you, Agent Gottlieb! Now, why don’t you go talk to your superiors about it?” Logan rose, tossed a bill on the bar, and took a step.

Gottlieb grabbed onto Logan’s arm. “I can’t talk to my superiors, or to anyone else in the government. White’s got ties everywhere — I couldn’t trust anyone. My friends in the government may be his friends. There’s no way to know.”

Logan let the hand rest on his arm as he nodded. “You’re right about that much. But why Eyes Only?”

“If you can’t trust your friends,” Gottlieb said meaningfully, “who’s left but your enemies?”

That was a good point.

“All right, follow me out,” Logan said.

Then he climbed the stairs and headed outside. The sun had grown warm and felt good on his face. With Gottlieb stepping up next to him, Logan heard the cock of a gun and wondered if he’d been suckered...

... until he turned to find Asha standing behind them, her pistol aimed at Gottlieb’s skull.

“Maybe we should find somewhere more private,” Logan said as he lifted Gottlieb’s pistol from its holster.

The three of them turned down an alley, trooping far away from the street and into the shadows, Gottlieb leading the way, but Asha prodding. The alley smelled of decaying food and urine; somewhere, a cat cried out. Slipping behind a Dumpster, the three of them stood out of sight of the traffic on the street, though Gottlieb still peered around nervously, looking for prying eyes and eavesdroppers.

“Tell us what you know,” Logan ordered.

Otto Gottlieb gave them his story — all of it.

Logan had suspected much of what Gottlieb had to report, and had actually seen the assassins outside Jam Pony; but he knew they needed more.

“Do you have proof of any of this, Otto?”

Gottlieb shook his head. “There never is any — White calls it ‘plausible deniability.’ ”

The phrase had an all-too-familiar ring to Logan. “Where can we get proof?”

“If I knew that, I wouldn’t have come looking for Eyes Only.”

Logan decided to change course. “Where’s Sage Thompson?”

Looking as though he’d just been punched, Gottlieb asked, “How the hell do you know about him?”

“Because Eyes Only found out about Calvin Hankins.”

“I can’t believe it...”

“Otto, do you know where Thompson is?”

“No! But if I did, he might be able to corroborate some of what I’ve told you.”

The smell in the alley was as unpleasant as it was thick; Logan — ready to find a new office — said, “If you’re on the level, Otto, you’ll have to do exactly what I tell you.”

Gottlieb sighed. “I’m good at that.”

“You got a car?”

“Sure — just around the corner.”

The three of them marched to the vehicle. Asha got behind the wheel, Otto sat on the passenger side, and Logan got in the back.

“Hand me your cuffs, will you, Agent Gottlieb?”

“Make it ‘Otto.’ ” He fumbled around behind himself and got them out, then held the cuffs up over his shoulder.

“Right hand,” Logan ordered.

Gottlieb frowned. “What?”

Asha stuck the gun in his ribs, and the agent’s right hand went behind the seat.

Locking the bracelet over that hand, Logan said, “Now the left.”

Gottlieb obeyed, awkwardly extending his other arm around the seat, and Logan cuffed him with his arms pulled behind him.

“What’s this about?”

Logan got out and Asha rolled down the passenger side window for him to lean in. “Show of good faith or not, I can’t trust you, Otto. So, you’re going to have to trust me. Asha will watch you — she’ll take you to a safe place. I’ll join you as soon as I can. If I find Agent Thompson, we may be able to help you. If you’re lying... well, I think you can fill in that blank, yourself. Do we have an understanding, Otto?”

Looking very scared, Gottlieb nodded.

Logan shook his head slowly. “I hope you’re telling the truth, Otto. A lot of people are depending on you... and if we don’t find Agent Thompson, they might all be in serious trouble.”

And right now Otto Gottlieb looked like he knew all about what it was like being in serious trouble.

Chapter ten

No place like home

COUNTY GENERAL HOSPITAL, 1:42 P.M.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 12, 2021

Alec opened his eyes to terrible, harsh brightness, and immediately shut them again. He tried to move his arm up to shield his face, but found the limb restrained, the other one too. Keeping his eyes closed, the light warm on his face, he tried to move his feet; they too were tethered.

“You’re not going anywhere, 494,” a familiar caustic voice said.

Alec’s gut tensed: Ames White.